Sina Weibo Introduces "User Contract"

China's web giant Sina, operator of Weibo.com, has created a "user contract" for this most popular twitter-like microblog service, shortly after it admitted it hasn't enforced rules requested by the government

China's web giant Sina, operator of Weibo.com, has created a "user contract"
for this most popular twitter-like microblog service, shortly after it admitted
it hasn't fully implemented rules requested by the government that require users
to submit their identifications.

The terms of the user contract, which include some of particular concern over
regulations of sensitive information, are in an initial trial phase and
will be introduced across the Sina Weibo service on May 28.

In Article 13, the contract lists nearly ten kinds of information users are
not allowed to publish on Weibo, including that "harms the unity, sovereignty,
or territorial integrity of the nation" and that "spreads rumors, disrupts
social order, and destroys societal stability."

Among terms that define some "don'ts" in users' account information, it also
specifies that users could not "avoid the above-mentioned restrictions" using
subtle or vague expressions, which can be seen regularly among its 300 million
users to express negative feelings.

These terms also call for the creation of a new "community committee" charged
with overseeing and implementing these new rules. The committee will be
comprised of Sina Weibo users, as well as "expert members", who will determine
the factual accuracy of any questionable posts.

Punishments will be enforced on users who violate its terms, including a bar
from commenting, posting and even forced closure, depending on how serious those
violations are.

China's regular had forced Sina to deactivate its comment feature for three
days to clean "rumors" of a political cop in April amid qualm following Bo
Xilai's ouster.

Here below are full terms of the contract:

Section 1: Overview

Article 1) Sina Weibo is a social media internet platform established and
operated by by Sina Corporation.

Article 2) "Sina Weibo user" refers to a registered user of Sina Weibo,
and he or she must observe the rules of this agreement; unregistered users
must also observe the rules of this agreement in activities on this
platform.

Article 3) Sina Weibo users may not violate presently active laws and
regulations on this platform. This platform will, according to relevant laws and
regulations as well as agreements with registered users, cooperate with
juridical organs to protect and maintain the legal rights and interests of those
whose rights are violated.

Article 4) Sina Weibo Community Management Center (hereafter, "the Site")
will, according to present laws and regulations as well as this agreement,
establish "Sina Weibo Community Agreement (Trial Phase)" and implement
it.

Section 2: Rights and Privileges of Users

Article 5) Users enjoy the right to use Sina Weibo accounts. This right
of use cannot be transferred in any way; the behavior of an account will be seen
as the behavior of the registered user.

Article 6) The Site encourages users to authenticate their true
identities and apply for a special symbol; the application methods and criteria
for authentication are public and transparent. These kinds of users enjoy more
services. The special symbols include: individual authentication, Weibo
celebrity, and organization authentication, among others.

Article 7) Expression by users on this platform may not infringe upon the
legal rights of others, and may not come in conflict with presently effective
laws, regulations, and this agreement.

Article 8) Users' individual privacy is protected.

Information authenticating Sina Weibo users' true identities is protected
by a third party platform. Protection of users' privacy is a fundamental policy
of Sina Weibos, except in the case of users voluntarily providing the
information and judicial authorities requiring it to be revealed in accordance
with legal procedures.

Article 9) When users' rights are infringed upon in the Sina Weibo
community, they may protect their rights through the Weibo reporting function or
take legal measures.

Section 3 Regulations on User Behavior

Article 10) User registration and use of weibos must be in accordance
with presently effective laws and regulations. It is not permitted to allow the
use of a weibo account by another party in any manner, and it is not permitted
to illegitimately use another's weibo account.

Article 11) Users may not maliciously use machines or software, or other
non-human methods to register a weibo account, distribute content, or follow
others, excepting software applications permitted by Weibo officially.

Article 12) Users have the right to set their individual account
information (including: nickname, picture, self-introduction, account template,
etc.) but accounts are not permitted which contain content that:

1. Violates national laws and
regulations2. Is an attack on another
person3. Implies confusion or mixing up with
another person or organization4. Includes
illegal informationIt is not permitted to use oblique expression or
other methods to get around the aforementioned
restrictions

Article 13) Users have the right to publish information, but may
not publish any information that:

1.Opposes the basic principles established by the
constitution2.Harms the unity, sovereignty, or territorial integrity of the
nation3.Reveals national secrets, endangers national security, or threatens
the the honor or interests of the nation4.Incites ethnic hatred or ethnic
discrimination, undermines ethnic unity, or harms ethnic traditions and
customs5.Promotes evil teachings and superstitions6.Spreads rumors,
disrupts social order, and destroys societal stability7.Promotes illicit
activity, gambling, violence, or calls for the committing of crimes8.Calls
for disruption of social order through illegal gatherings, formation of
organizations, protests, demonstrations, mass gatherings and assemblies9.Has
other content which is forbidden by laws, administrative regulations and
national regulations.

Article 15) Users must respect the reputations of others, and may not attack
them personally with insults, libel, or in any other way.

Article 16) Users should respect others' right to privacy, and may not
infringe upon their privacy, except when it is relevant to the public good or
agreed upon by the person(s) in question. Privacy includes real names, ID
numbers, telephone numbers, home address, and other personal information users
are not willing to publicly reveal.

Article 17) Users should respect the image rights of others, and may not use
or alter images of others without their permission.

Article 18) Users should respect the rights of others to be free from worry,
and may not use Weibo to harass others. They may not repeatedly comment on or
at, directly message, or send requests to follow that contain the exact or
closely resembling information or include identical requests.

Article 19) Users should respect the copyrights of others. When posting
content created by others, they must indicate the source or have a clear
"republish" symbol.

Section 4: Community Management

Article 20) Sina Weibo community management is jointly accomplished
by the Site and the community committee.

Article 21) The Site may find behavior which violates regulations
directly or through reporting by users; users who have completed identity
authentication may use Weibo's reporting feature.

Article 22) The Site may deal with behavior which violates regulations in
accordance with "Sina Weibo Community Management Regulations (Trial
Phase)"

Article 24) The Site will directly deal with behavior in clear violation
of regulations; other regulation violating behavior will be dealt after the
community committee makes a determination.

Article 25) The community committee can be split into two types: regular
committee members who can pass decisions on conflicts between users, and expert
committee members who can determine if information is true. The community
committee members will be recruited from the public.

Article 26) When determining whether suspects have violated regulations,
community committee members will pass a verdict by majority vote within a
specific time frame, and the Site will complete processing according to the
result.

Article 27) The procedure for processing violations of regulations will
be publicly shown on the website file.

Article 28) The methods used by the Site to process violations according
to the verdicts of the community committee are users' self regulation, and do
not represent the stance of Sina Weibo.

Section 5: Addendums

Article 29) Legal disputes of users that come from their behaviors on
Weibo have no relation to Sina Corporation

Article 30) The Site can continuously perfect this convention in
accordance with different levels of development of the internet, the community's
accumulation of management experience, and the need to maintain order in the
Weibo community.

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